九号创新：常听人说设计门槛低，会画几张图、用得顺手建模软件，就觉得能在深圳开家工业设计公司，可真踏入设计圈就会发现，这想法太片面了。深圳作为设计之都，工业设计、品牌设计赛道的竞争早已到了拼综合实力的阶段，开一家能活下去、能做长久的深圳工业设计公司，远不是 “会做设计” 就能支撑的，所谓的 “低门槛”，不过是对设计行业的浅层认知，真正的门槛藏在专业、资源、运营、行业适配等各个维度，其结合深圳本地的产业特点，在深圳产品设计创业这些门槛更是清晰且难以跨越。
@NINEIDEA九号创新 www.nineidea.com
基础设计技能≠产品设计的专业落地能力
这是最核心的第一道坎。深圳的工业设计、产品设计从来不是 “纯创意创作”，而是围绕珠三角制造业供应链展开的实用型设计，不管是做深圳消费电子产品设计、深圳智能家居产品设计，还是五金塑胶、户外用品、医疗小件的产品设计，光会出效果图、做外观建模远远不够。成熟的深圳工业设计公司，设计师不仅要懂审美和创意，更要精通结构设计、CMF 设计落地、模具开模的工艺要求，还要能精准对接东莞、惠州、佛山等地的制造工厂，知道什么样的设计能降本、什么样的结构能避免打样失败、什么样的材质适配量产。很多单打独斗的设计师，创意不错，但设计出来的产品离量产差十万八千里，在深圳这个以 “落地为王” 的产品设计市场，这样的设计毫无价值，更别说支撑一家公司的业务。而这些供应链资源、工艺落地经验，不是靠自学能得来的，大多需要在深圳本土的工业设计公司深耕多年，跟着项目一步步积累，这也是为什么很多新手开的深圳产品设计工作室，往往接不到长期单，只能做些小单、散单。
工业设计圈的竞争门槛，早已筛掉只会 “做设计” 的创业者。
深圳的工业设计公司扎堆在南山、宝安、龙岗的各类设计产业园，光是正规注册、有固定团队的就有上千家，更别说小型工作室和个人创业者，同质化竞争本就激烈。客户在选择深圳工业设计服务商时，不会只看设计水平，更看案例、看落地能力、看配套服务 —— 比如能不能做一站式深圳工业设计落地服务，从市场调研、产品定位、外观设计，到结构研发、打样测试、供应链对接全包；比如有没有做过同品类的标杆案例，比如消费电子的便携设备设计、智能家居的小家电设计；甚至看能不能适配客户的成本预算和交期要求。深圳的制造业客户，不管是本土工厂还是做跨境电商的商家，对产品设计的核心诉求都是 “好看、好用、好造、好卖”，如果新开的设计公司没有差异化优势，要么只能陷入低价竞争，靠压低设计费抢单，最后赚不到钱；要么根本拿不到优质客户，只能在低端赛道打转。而打造差异化，不管是聚焦某一细分赛道的精品深圳产品设计定制，还是做智能化的 AI 辅助工业设计，都需要专业的团队和前期的资源投入，这不是单个人能实现的。
开公司的商业运营门槛，是设计师转型创业者的最大鸿沟。
做设计师只需要对自己的作品负责，而开一家深圳工业设计公司，要对整个公司的生存负责，这是完全不同的逻辑。深圳的办公成本、人力成本本就不低，设计公司的固定支出包括办公场地租金、设计软件正版授权、打样测试费用，还有团队搭建的成本 —— 一家靠谱的深圳产品设计公司，光有外观设计师不够，还需要结构工程师、供应链对接专员、市场调研岗，甚至后期的知识产权专员，这些岗位的人员成本，足以让新手创业者压力倍增。除此之外，还要搞定客户开发：深圳的工业设计业务，一部分来自展会（比如深圳工业设计展、高交会），一部分来自线上获客，还有一部分靠老客转介绍，没有成熟的获客渠道，公司很容易陷入 “没单做” 的困境；还要应对项目回款问题，珠三角制造业的客户大多有账期，设计费回款慢是行业常态，没有足够的现金流储备，公司很容易资金链断裂；更要做好知识产权管理，深圳对设计专利的保护力度大，但同时抄袭、仿款的现象也时有发生，不管是保护自己的设计成果，还是避免侵权他人的设计，都需要专业的知识和维权成本，这些都是纯做设计的设计师从未接触过的事。
工业设计行业的升级趋势，不断抬高了创业的门槛。
如今的工业设计，早已不是十几年前的 “外观改款” 时代，而是朝着智能化、数字化、场景化的方向发展。比如新能源配套产品的设计研发、产品设计的数字孪生应用、适配海外市场的跨境产品设计，甚至是结合人机工程学的康养产品设计，这些新赛道都要求设计公司不仅懂设计，还要懂市场、懂技术、懂用户需求。深圳的头部工业设计公司，早已开始布局 “设计 + 研发 + 供应链” 的全链路服务，而新手如果还停留在 “只做外观设计” 的层面，根本无法跟上行业节奏。同时，深圳的客户也在不断升级，越来越多的工厂和品牌商，需要设计公司参与到产品的前期定位和后期市场推广中，这就要求设计公司具备市场调研和品牌思维，而这些能力，都需要团队的综合积淀，不是一蹴而就的。
说到底，深圳的工业设计、产品设计行业，所谓的 “低门槛”，只是入门做一名基础设计师的门槛低，而开一家能持续经营的深圳工业设计公司，门槛其实极高。它要求创业者不仅是一名优秀的设计师，还要是懂珠三角供应链的资源整合者、懂市场的经营者、懂行业趋势的决策者。当然，这并不是说普通人完全不能在深圳开设计公司，而是说，想做好这件事，不能抱着 “会设计就能成” 的心态，最好先在深圳成熟的工业设计公司积累足够的专业经验、供应链资源和客户资源，再结合自身优势找到细分赛道，一步步搭建团队、打磨服务，才能在深圳的设计赛道里站稳脚跟。
Product Design Entrepreneurship Truth: Being able to draw ≠ being able to start a company, the core threshold is here
NINEIDEA: People often say that the design threshold is low, they can draw a few pictures and use modeling software easily. They think that they can open an industrial design company in Shenzhen, but if they really step into the design circle, they will find that this idea is too one-sided. As the design capital of Shenzhen, the competition in industrial design and brand design has already reached the stage of building comprehensive strength. Opening a sustainable and long-lasting Shenzhen industrial design company is far from being supported by “knowing how to design”. The so-called “low threshold” is just a superficial understanding of the design industry.
The real threshold lies in various dimensions such as professionalism, resources, operation, and industry adaptation. Combined with the local industrial characteristics of Shenzhen, these thresholds are even clearer and difficult to overcome in product design and entrepreneurship in Shenzhen.
Basic design skills ≠ professional implementation ability of product design
This is the most crucial first hurdle. Industrial design and product design in Shenzhen have never been purely creative, but practical designs centered around the supply chain of the manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta. Whether it is designing consumer electronics products, smart home products, hardware and plastics, outdoor products, or medical accessories, simply creating renderings and modeling appearances is far from enough. Mature industrial design companies in Shenzhen require designers not only to understand aesthetics and creativity, but also to be proficient in structural design, CMF design implementation, and mold opening process requirements.
They also need to be able to accurately connect with manufacturing factories in Dongguan, Huizhou, Foshan, and other places, knowing what kind of design can reduce costs, what kind of structure can avoid sample failure, and what kind of material is suitable for mass production. Many independent designers have good creativity, but the products they design are far from mass production. In the product design market in Shenzhen, where “landing is king,” such designs are worthless, let alone supporting a company’s business.
And these supply chain resources and process implementation experience cannot be obtained through self-study. Most of them require years of deep cultivation in local industrial design companies in Shenzhen, accumulating step by step with projects. This is also why many novice Shenzhen product design studios often cannot receive long-term orders and can only do small and scattered orders.
The competitive threshold in the industrial design circle has long screened out entrepreneurs who only know how to “do design”.
Industrial design companies in Shenzhen are clustered in various design industrial parks in Nanshan, Bao’an, and Longgang. There are thousands of registered companies with fixed teams, not to mention small studios and individual entrepreneurs. Homogenization competition is already fierce. When choosing an industrial design service provider in Shenzhen, customers do not only consider their design level, but also their case studies, implementation capabilities, and supporting services – such as whether they can provide one-stop Shenzhen industrial design implementation services, including market research, product positioning, appearance design, structural research and development, sample testing, and supply chain integration;
For example, have you ever done benchmark cases in the same category, such as portable device design for consumer electronics and small home appliance design for smart homes; Even to see if it can adapt to the customer’s cost budget and delivery requirements. Manufacturing customers in Shenzhen, whether they are local factories or cross-border e-commerce merchants, have a core demand for product design that is “good-looking, easy to use, easy to manufacture, and easy to sell”. If a newly opened design company does not have a differentiation advantage, it will either be trapped in low price competition, relying on low design fees to grab orders, and ultimately unable to make money;
Either they can’t get high-quality customers at all and can only spin around in the low-end track. To create differentiation, whether it is focusing on the design and customization of high-quality Shenzhen products in a specific niche or doing intelligent AI assisted industrial design, it requires a professional team and initial resource investment, which cannot be achieved by a single person.
The commercial operation threshold for starting a company is the biggest gap for designers to transform into entrepreneurs.
Being a designer only requires responsibility for one’s own work, while opening a Shenzhen industrial design company requires responsibility for the survival of the entire company. This is a completely different logic. The office and labor costs in Shenzhen are already quite high. The fixed expenses of design companies include office space rent, authorized design software, sampling and testing fees, as well as team building costs. A reliable Shenzhen product design company requires not only exterior designers, but also structural engineers, supply chain coordinators, market research positions, and even later intellectual property specialists.
The personnel costs of these positions are enough to double the pressure on novice entrepreneurs. In addition, it is also necessary to handle customer development: the industrial design business in Shenzhen comes partly from exhibitions (such as Shenzhen Industrial Design Exhibition and High tech Fair), partly from online customer acquisition, and partly from referrals from old customers. Without mature customer acquisition channels, the company is easily trapped in the dilemma of “no orders to do”;
We also need to deal with the issue of project payment. Most customers in the manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta have payment terms, and slow payment of design fees is a common practice in the industry. Without sufficient cash flow reserves, companies are prone to financial chain breakage; It is even more important to do a good job in intellectual property management. Shenzhen has a strong protection for design patents, but at the same time, plagiarism and imitation also occur from time to time. Whether it is protecting one’s own design results or avoiding infringement of others’ designs, professional knowledge and rights protection costs are required, which are things that pure designers have never encountered before.
The upgrading trend of the industrial design industry has continuously raised the threshold for entrepreneurship.
Today’s industrial design is no longer the era of “appearance redesign” from more than a decade ago, but is developing towards intelligence, digitization, and scene adaptation. For example, the design and development of new energy supporting products, digital twin applications in product design, cross-border product design adapted to overseas markets, and even the design of health and wellness products combined with ergonomics all require design companies to not only understand design, but also market, technology, and user needs.
The leading industrial design companies in Shenzhen have already begun to lay out the full chain services of “design+research and development+supply chain”, and if beginners still stay at the level of “only doing exterior design”, they cannot keep up with the pace of the industry. At the same time, customers in Shenzhen are constantly upgrading, and more and more factories and brands require design companies to participate in the early positioning and later market promotion of their products. This requires design companies to have market research and brand thinking, and these abilities require the comprehensive accumulation of the team, which cannot be achieved overnight.
In the final analysis, the so-called “low threshold” in Shenzhen’s industrial design and product design industry means that the threshold for becoming a basic designer is low, while the threshold for starting a sustainable Shenzhen industrial design company is actually extremely high. It requires entrepreneurs not only to be excellent designers, but also resource integrators who understand the Pearl River Delta supply chain, market operators, and decision-makers who understand industry trends.
Of course, this does not mean that ordinary people cannot open a design company in Shenzhen at all. It means that in order to do this well, one cannot hold the mentality of “knowing how to design is enough”. It is best to first accumulate sufficient professional experience, supply chain resources, and customer resources in mature industrial design companies in Shenzhen, and then combine their own advantages to find segmented tracks, gradually build teams, and polish services, in order to establish a firm foothold in the design track in Shenzhen.
